Study Shows that Users Don’t Use Snapchat Primarily to Sext

When most people think of Snapchat, they think of teenagers and college students sexting, right? Well, a new study done by the University of Washington finds that sexting is actually not the main use.

After polling 127 Snapchat users ages 18 and over, 60 percent said they used Snapchat primarily to send “funny content,” and secondly to snap a selfie. Just 14 percent said they’d previously sent sexts over Snapchat, while only 1.6 said they do regularly.

Snapchat is a smartphone app that allows users to send photos for up to 10 seconds that then self-destruct. Users can use filters, type, and draw on the photos. It currently has about 82 million users, most of who are between 13 and 25 years of age, according to Business Insider.

While the sample size is pretty small, the focus of the study was to correct Snapchat stereotypes.

Survey respondents said that the app’s temporary content makes it more fun to share silly or mundane images over Snapchat instead of a text, where pictures are automatically saved. “Snapchat allows for less serious communication,” said one person. Another stated that Snapchat “lets me have more cats in my life because my friends who don’t normally post pictures of their cats on other social media will Snapchat their cats to me.”

While the images do self-destruct, users can take a screenshot of the snap. Snapchat sends users notifications when someone takes a screenshot of their content. However, 5 people admitted to using a separate camera to photograph a message so the user wouldn’t know. I’m not entirely sure how the user would have time to quickly do this, but apparently it can be done.